Polo Museale Civico della Santissima Annunziata - Museo del Costume Popolare Abruzzese e Molisano e della Transumanza

The folk costume and transhumance section of Sulmona's civic museum occupies the Sala del Campanile in the Santissima Annunziata complex. Prints, reconstructed clothing and pastoral objects explore the material culture of Abruzzo and Molise.

Why it matters

The collection connects local dress with the seasonal movement of flocks between mountain and plain. It preserves evidence of regional distinctions and working practices that changed substantially during the modern period, without reducing them to a single vanished way of life.

What to notice

The Accardo print collection includes images derived from the Bourbon-era survey of costumes in the Kingdom of Naples. Reconstructed garments can be compared with these historical representations; some ensembles incorporate original elements. The Fulgensi collection brings together shepherds' tools and belongings, including bells, staffs, vessels and objects worked in wood or horn.

Context and history

The late eighteenth-century costume survey began as a royal project, with images also intended as models for porcelain decoration. Later collecting and reconstruction brought those representations together with clothing and objects of pastoral life. Their display within the Annunziata museum situates transhumance and folk dress within Sulmona's broader civic heritage.